Tangle Tower (game)
:For the location in which the game takes place, see Tangle Tower (location). ---- Tangle Tower is an indie point-and-click mystery/adventure game and the third installment in the Detective Grimoire series. It was developed and published by SFB Games, and was initially launched with the Apple Arcade service on September 19, 2019, with later releases for Nintendo Switch and Steam on October 22, 2019. Summary Tangle Tower follows Detective Grimoire and his new partner Sally Spears as they visit the titular Tangle Tower, home of both the Pointer and Fellow families, to solve the murder of Freya Fellow, who seemingly has been stabbed to death by a painting of her relative Flora Fellow holding a knife. From SFB Games' press release: Tangle Tower is a captivating mystery game designed by SFB Games. Investigate a curious murder case at Tangle Tower, an ominous mansion where secrets lurk in the darkest corners. The only suspect? A painting. Hunt for clues, interrogate eccentric suspects and untangle many brain-twisting puzzles! Gameplay See the Tangle Tower Puzzle Walkthrough. Tangle Tower is a point-and-click game and can be completed entirely through a mouse or trackpad, or with the touchscreen on an iPhone. Players assume the role of Grimoire as they interact with various suspects, collect clues in the various rooms and environments in Tangle Tower, and solve puzzles to unveil new pieces of evidence and progress through the game. When certain conditions are met, Grimoire can then question each suspect about something they're hiding. Characters *Detective Grimoire *Sally Spears *Detective Hawkshaw *Freya Fellow *Flora Fellow *Fifi Fellow *Fitz Fellow *Felix Fellow *Penny Pointer *Poppy Pointer *Professor Pointer Full Plot Detective Grimoire and his sidekick Sally arrive at Tangle Tower, on an island in the middle of a lake, surrounded by unscalable cliffs. They have been called in anonymously to investigate yesterday's murder of Freya Fellow. According to the case file they were sent, Freya looked to have been stabbed in the chest while painting her relative and friend, Flora Fellow. The latter appears to be holding a bloody knife in the painting, but no knife has been found at the crime scene. The red colour in the painting has turned out to be actual blood, not paint. Flora never speaks a word. Grimoire and Sally make their own investigation of the crime scene, and then proceed to investigate the entire mansion and it's grounds, and interrogate all it's residents. These are members of the Fellow family, Felix, Flora, Fifi and Fitz, and the Pointer family, Percival, Poppy and Penny, as well as Detective Hawkshaw, who was called in five days earlier on a different case. It quickly becomes clear that every resident has their individual problems and secrets. Some are more or less relevant to the investigation, others not so much. It also turns out that the water in the surrounding lake has special properties that genetically alter the flora and fauna of the island, though seemingly not mammals. These unique creatures are collectively referred to as mystids. The Plot Thickens Among the many decorative objects at Tangle Tower is a small pond with a statue of an amphibian-like creature playing a harp. The pillar of the harp has four dials that can be rotated horizontaly. Each show a series of blob-like figures, and an identifying symbol unique to each dial. Initially Grimoire and Sally have no idea what this is for, or what the correct combination is, but at some point in the investigation a small crab-like toy, appears by the pond. On its back is a note signed by Freya, the murder victim. By now Fifi will have opened Freya's diary for the detective and his plucky sidekick, and upon comparing the two sets of hand writing they find its a perfect match. The diary also has a reference to the toy where Freya calls it "The Soulbearer". The Soulbearer has a window or screen of sorts in its centre, with ink inside. The ink responds to different melodies, one for each identifier on the harp dials. As the Soulbearer is exposed to the right tunes the ink takes the shape of the corresponding symbol on each dial, providing the passcode. When put into the harp a secret door by the pond is opened. Grimoire and Sally now descend into a secret laboratory under the mansion. Here they find extensive research on bugs, that they link to Professor Pointer. They realise he's been trying to breed golden beetles. Through a hatch in the lab floor they also find a room at the bottom of the lake. It looks mostly abandoned, but contains a children's book about different mystids, a map of an older version of Tangle Tower titled "Mystid Mansion - northern cross-section", and a photo of Flora as a child with her father, Lord Remington and several Inkdip birds. The map shows that the water level of the lake is much higher now than it was before the mansion was built, and that there is a study in the middle of the second floor, accessible from the lobby. The map and the state of the rooms also indicate that the lab and room below existed before the mansion was built. Naturally, the study is the next stop. Here they find indications that something with claws used to live in the sylindrical aquarium stretching from the lobby, through the study and surfacing in the rooftop garden. There is also a furnace, some vague notes, plans for a Hawkshaw costume based on Freya's nightmare painting, a hidden crossbow, and a group photo of "The Ambassadors of Mystid Mansion". Each individual in the photo have had their eyes crossed out with black ink. After analyzing all the new clues they "put it all together" and figure out how Freya was murdered. They deduce that Freya and Flora were both rendered unconscious by the hiss of the golden beetle, amplified by the gramophone. The killer was hiding in the attic, and shot Freya from above, through the crack in the floor, with the crossbow found in the study. The arrow was then pulled back up with the reel found in the attic, and the murderer left the scene. The only thing they can’t figure out is how the beetle was triggered to hiss at the right time. Sally says she wants to return to the crime scene "to check something". Back in Flora's Tower Sally and Grimoire look over the clues in the room once more. In the painting they see the outline of something that isn't there anymore, and that there's yellow paint on the palette. Combining the shape and the colour they realise Penny's yellow bird was present during the murder, and likely made the beetle feel threatened to make it hiss. Suddenly it's back and out from the shadows steps Hawkshaw. She reveals herself to be Penelope (as she now insists on being called) in disguise. She insists on having Grimoire tie her hands, and proceeds to tell Grimoire and Sally the story of what led her to murder Freya. Penelope Pointer First of all, when Sally asks "What did Freya do to you?", Penelope answers "Absolutely nothing," and that she was an "inspiration to us all," and was truly free, unlike herself. Then she tells them about herself, and life at Tangle Tower. She expresses taht she's unimportant, due to not measuring up to the other residents. She also points out that none of the residents are happy. Tangle Tower is simply not a good place to live. Sally recalls Penny telling them she used to travel, and yes, she did. It didn't help. She wanted answers to her questions about her family and their home. Firstly, where had the five absent residents gone? Secondly, if she belonged with them, since she had no place among the current residents. For a long time she wasn't getting anywhere, as nobody would talk about those who'd left. Then, at nineteen, she discovered the study. The furnace was still warm. The Era of Mystid Mansion Penelope informs the confused detective of what mystids are, namely life forms that have mutated because of the local lake water. Originally they were supposed to be kept secret, but some have escaped. When she discovered the study she also found the group picture of "The Ambassadors of Mystid Mansion," but everything else was gone. Having failed to get any information of her family history from the people around her and the study, she hoped she'd have better luck with the Ambassadors. If she could find them. She did, but they weren't very helpful. Having imagined them as a unified group on a mission she was very dissapointed in finding them to be "every bit as fractured as the people who still live here." With no other options, she returned home. A Lowly Entomologist When her uncle, Professor Pointer, started claiming to be really into astronomy Penelope saw straight through him. She found out he gotten possession of a mystid, the golden beetle. She believes he recieved it in the mail, a link to a certain couple of notes in the previous game. Then she stole it. Pointer was clearly upset at losing his treasure, and was very receptive to Penny's suggestion that someone had stolen it, and that he should hire an investigator. Enter Hawkshaw. This both gave Penny access to everybody's rooms in the mansion, and motivated Pointer to open up a little about the family secrets. That's when he gave her the access code to the laboratory. She had hoped to find useful information to steal there, but was again dissapointed. Pointer had made little progress in his research on the beetle. Penelope, however has done better. She informs Sally and Grimoire that the beetle's exoskeleton "is ninety percent identical to gold", but that it's the remaining ten she's interested in. This is related to the unique components of the lake. Before there even was a lake or a mansion, Lord and Lady Remington built a research station. As Grimoire and Sally have already seen it's now been cleared out. The Ambassadors had taken or burned almost everything of value. However, Penelope still managed to find something they had missed. "It's not much," she says, "but I have what I need." The Will of Freya Fellow Freya was freaked out by Hawkshaw's appearance, as Penelope had based her design on a painting of hers. Penny had thought it was just an abstract image, but it turned out portrayed a figure from a recurring nightmare Freya was having. Penelope acknowledges that she "pushed her over the edge" with this" and that Freya was probably the most troubled of all the residents. She had been desperately wanting to leave, but stayed because Fifi wouldn't come with her. Freya set about trying to break into Pointer's lab. Penelope theorises that she may have wanted to free the beetles, having a fondness for them and being upset by Pointer's research,. An even bigger theory is that she wanted to expose the family and the world to the family secrets, so Fifi might feel less obliged to honour her heritage. Unfortunately she found the study before the lab. Then finding the group photo, she also found out about the ambassadors and what Penelope had done to them. So she had to die. Penelope took advantage of Freya's painting session with Flora, and used the beetle knock them out so Flora wouldn't have to witness the murder. She put blood in the red paint pot to distract Fifi and Poppy, and as a bonus, Grimoire and Sally. The latter asks why Penelope hasn't left yet. Penelope has been waiting for the chance to retrieve her beetle, as she'd "rather not leave without it." Sally realises it's still in the gramophone. A moment later Penny's bird taps the gramophone with it's beak, triggering the beetle to hiss. Grimoire and Sally pass out. Escape When they come to they're down by the lake's edge, with Poppy, Fifi and Fitz standing around them. They tell them Fitz heard the beetle and ran up to Flora's room to find Penny standing over them with the crossbow. Upon seeing Fitz she fled out the window and left the island. Grimoire asks if she took the beetle with her, but Poppy reveals she has it in her hand. Instead of returning it to her father she puts it down on the ground to live in peace, saying she thinks that's what Freya would have wanted. Development Tangle Tower's development was started several years prior to the game's release in 2019, though it was put on pause after Nintendo approached SFB Games to develop another game, Snipperclips. Once Snipplerclips and its expansion, Snipperclips Plus, was launched in 2017, development on Tangle Tower was resumed. Due to Apple Arcade's requirements, the game was translated into 17 different languages by Universally Speaking, allowing the game to be accessible to more players around the world. Tangle Tower's full list of supported languages are English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Arabic, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish. Critical Reception Tangle Tower received mostly positive reviews upon release, earning a score of 84% on Metacritic based on reviews from 9 critics. The game was primarily praised for its sharp writing, voice acting, music, and unique art style, though it was also criticized for its rushed ending. Thanks to its score, the game was ranked 30th Best Nintendo Switch Game of 2019 on the Metacritic website. Gallery Promo= Tangle-tower_logo.png|Logo TangleTower-Promo1.jpg TangleTower-Promo2.jpg TangleTower-Poster.jpg |-|In-Game= TangleTower-TitleCard.png|Title Card Category:Games